Gleason: Feinberg confident he'll find a big HIT (videao)

SAUGERTIES — You might walk away from Rob Feinberg thinking he's one of the neatest guys you've ever met or a wild dreamer.

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By KEVIN GLEASON

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By KEVIN GLEASON

Posted May. 23, 2013 at 2:00 AM
Updated May 23, 2013 at 12:53 PM

By KEVIN GLEASON

Posted May. 23, 2013 at 2:00 AM
Updated May 23, 2013 at 12:53 PM

HITS-ON-THE-HUDSON OPEN

HITS-on-the-Hudson in Saugerties opened its season on Wednesday. The spring season will run three weeks. There also are events at HITS for two weeks in July and during its fall season for a month s...

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HITS-ON-THE-HUDSON OPEN

HITS-on-the-Hudson in Saugerties opened its season on Wednesday. The spring season will run three weeks. There also are events at HITS for two weeks in July and during its fall season for a month starting in late August.

The circuits showcase, the Grand Prix events, are each Friday and Sunday. All events are free for spectators other than a $5 donation on Sundays.

HITS is primarily focused on producing hunter/jumper horse shows. HITS produced its first horse show circuit in 1982 in Gainesville, Fla., and has grown into a nationwide company with world-class hunter-jumper circuits in California, Florida, Arizona, New York and Virginia. HITS Inc. produces three of the richest grand prix events in the world, with the Zoetis $1 million Grand Prix in Saugerties, the Thermal (Calif.) $1 million Grand Prix and the Ocala (Fla.) $1 million Grand Prix - all forming the first ever triple crown of show jumping.

HITS championship weekend also boasts the crown jewels of the hunter discipline with the Diamond Mills $500,000 Hunter Prix Final and the HITS $250,000 Hunter Prix Final.

"Unfortunately, a lot of people don't understand this sport,'' said HITS marketing representative Lindsay Yandon. "Nobody can deny that they are pretty gorgeous animals.

Kevin Gleason

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SAUGERTIES — You might walk away from Rob Feinberg thinking he's one of the neatest guys you've ever met or a wild dreamer.

But he is interesting. Just about everything he does, or doesn't do, is interesting. And so you listen intently and wonder if he's going to virtually walk off the street into the promised land of the show jumping horse industry.

Feinberg plans to turn his jumpers into some of the best in the country, the kind of horse that wins big money at such events as HITS-on-the-Hudson in Saugerties, which opened its season on Wednesday.

Never mind that Feinberg, a Monticello High graduate, has no formal training working with jumpers and started schooling his first jumper horse just two years ago.

"I'm a person who doesn't let people stop me from what I want to accomplish in life,'' he says. "That's pretty much what I am.''

Feinberg bought Day Tripper two years ago for $2,000. Day Tripper was a Western Pleasure horse, a discipline focused on a horse's manners and calmness and disposition, not jumping over fences. He has converted Day Tripper into a jumper, and says the horse recently finished second in his debut at a beginner event in Sussex, N.J.

But how? Feinberg cites a summer program at SUNY Morrisville years ago as his only formal educational experience with horses. Feinberg learned the ins and outs of standardbreds, not jumpers, in the program. So how was he able to turn Day Tripper into a jumper in less than a year?

Feinberg says the key is to train the horse "from the ground up,'' meaning he first walks the animal toward and over fences without a rider. Feinberg cites the importance of a quality diet for the horse, which is why, he says, Day Tripper eats only the finest hay and alfalfa. He says the other secret is connecting with the horse.

"I understand their language,'' he says. "It's like a kid. You have to work with them through their problems. I know how to make a connection. You give me a horse, I guarantee you that I can make it do anything.''

Sounds like some kind of horse whisperer. "I guess if you want to call it that,'' Feinberg says.

Robin McNellis, who rides Day Tripper through training exercises at a Bethel facility, vouches for Feinberg's skills. She says his ability to convert Day Tripper from a Western Pleasure horse to a jumper is "pretty rare.''

"It's his confidence and belief in the horse,'' McNellis says. "That's the secret. When people tell him he can't do it, it doesn't distract him at all.''

Feinberg admits that some within the industry's establishment have viewed him skeptically. But he ignores the naysayers. "When I charged $1 to wash a window of any size, they all laughed at me,'' he says of starting up Itsnotapain.com, which is Web site now calls "undoubtedly the fastest growing commercial, industrial and residential cleaning company anywhere in the continental U.S.''

"Now I'm laughing to the bank. I'm good at what I do,'' Feinberg says. "I don't like looking bad.''

Day Tripper made it over just seven of a dozen or so jumps in a low-scale non-monetary event at HITS on Wednesday. He will give it another shot on Thursday and likely each Wednesday and Thursday through early June. Feinberg acknowledges that Day Tripper might not be the horse to compete for six- and seven-figure purses at such shows as HITS. That is why, Feinberg says, he recently purchased two horses from Europe, at $15,000 a pop, currently being quarantined. He claims they will be Olympic-caliber jumpers within two years.

"You can spend $100,000 on horses, but it doesn't mean anything,'' he says. "It's working with the horse and understanding that horse and respecting one another.''

Day Tripper will give it another shot on Thursday. Feinberg is determined to get the last laugh.